Sunday, October 28, 2007
Women scribes boost play cache
Variety: "America is gearing up for a presidential race in which for the first time, a woman has a very real chance at taking the White House. But have distaff playwrights made similar inroads in the legit world?"
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3 comments:
I'm glad that this article isn't as whiny as I was expecting it to be. I totally agree with the quote that "a good play will be produced no matter who its written by." While I understand the point of the article and recognize the reality of the numbers, it definitely seems like the problem has very little to do with women writers, but more to do with the work that they're producing (mainly the bit about women writing about female leads, which the audience is less interested in). Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see more work by women and I totally support companies working to produce plays written by women. I feel like making the case that women are blatantly descriminated against as writers in professional theatre is an exaggeration and the fact that companies like these are becoming successful demonstrates how wrong that statement is.
Personally, I think the only way to reach gender equality is to ignore the element of gender. Granted, women will write plays differently from men, but so will any arbitrary person from any other arbitrary person. The fact is that art is influenced by the artist's experience, but this change shouldn't be the focus of producers. Like the article said, it should be about whether the play is good or bad.
Everyone needs to get over their demographics instead of pushing minorities (gender or otherwise) in hopes of achieving equality.
I think that the issue isn't some sort of glass ceiling that women are running into because as a play write its your work that does the speaking, and people don't have to see your face before deciding if you have talent or not. i think the issue has more to do with the material which women are interested in, rather than men. a female play write could be captivated by a scene or character in real life which she turns into a play, which men or even other women just dont find that compelling. maybe women just pay more attention and thus find more specific (less 'everyman') scenarios as perfect plots. I think 'Deuce' is a perfect example. it's not 'everyman' and its a plot which obviously the play write found interesting, which perhaps isnt so interesting.
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